Penguins beat Hartford in OT

The Hartford Wolf Pack played outside of New England for the first time in 18 months as they paid a visit to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday night, but took a tough 2-1 overtime loss.

Defenseman Cam Lee weaved his way into scoring position during the three-on-three overtime, sending a backhander onto the Wolf Pack goal. The initial shot was kicked away, but the rebound came right to Kasper Bjorkqvist. Bjorkqvist quickly fired the puck into the empty net, propelling the

Penguins to their second victory of the season.

The Penguins opened the scoring as Filip Hallander scored his first career AHL goal just 6:53 into the game. Nathan Legare fired a shot on the rush that Wolf Pack goaltender Keith Kinkaid cleanly denied, but the rebound popped right into the slot and onto the stick of Hallander. With Kinkaid committed to the initial save, Hallander had a wide-open net.

Just 50 seconds later, the

Wolf Pack found themselves on the penalty kill after Austin Rueschhoff took a tripping penalty at the 7:43 mark. For the second game in a row, however, the Hartford penalty kill stole the momentum. A strong, uneventful kill settled things down, and Hartford began to tilt the ice in the second half of the period.

Finally, with just under half a minute to play in the period, P.C. Labrie settled a puck down in front of the goal, then spun a pass onto the stick of an open Anthony Greco. Greco quickly released a shot that Filip Lindberg couldn’t get to, tying it 1-1 with his first goal of the season at the 19:37 mark.

The Wolf Pack had two power plays and the Penguins three in a scoreless second period.

Nathan Legare had a great chance to break the tie just over the midway point of the third period. After a Wolf Pack turnover in the offensive zone, Legare was sprung free on a breakaway and cleanly beat Kinkaid but rang the iron on the best chance of the period.